Abacha loot: Police discover house loaded with foreign currencies; Commissioner of Police, three others quizzed; N30 million, cars seized; Presidency wades in; It is not our money - Abacha’s son

Lanre Adewole, Abuja - 13.01.2008

Another angle has crept into the alleged mind-boggling looting of the nation’s treasury by late Head of State,General Sani Abacha and his family, with the recent discovery by Police, of an apartment in a North-West state, loaded with foreign currencies, said to belong to the Abacha family.

The shocking discovery was reportedly made by operatives of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) attached to a state in the North-Central region.

Already three suspects have been arrested, quizzed and detained over the discovery, with the fourth suspect said to be on the run. The handling of the case has also landed a Commissioner of Police in a North-Central state in trouble.

He was reportedly whisked to the Force Headquarters in Abuja about three weeks ago in handcuffs. Though he is back on his seat, officers privy to the scandal said that the senior officer himself knew he was on borrowed time on the job.

Apart from trying to take the case away from the officers from the Federal Unit in ways said to be very unprofessional, the Commissioner of Police is also accused of benefiting heavily from the suspects.

The police boss is also said to have landed himself in further trouble, when it was reportedly discovered that he was trying to sabotage the officers from the Federal Unit, by encouraging the members of the suspects’ families to write petitions alleging the kidnap of the arrested suspects.

When the home of one of the suspects in the North-Central state was raided, Sunday Tribune leamt that a small box containing foreign currencies was recovered from the ceiling.

The naira value of the recovered foreign currency, according to police sources, was in excess of N30million, which is now in the custody of a Deputy Inspector General of Police, supervising the investigation.

Five exotic cars were also said to have been recovered from the prime suspects, with one of them {names withheld} confessing to having about ten brand new buses, being used for inter-state commercial transport service, trucks, buses and houses.

He is also said to own a mini-mega station. According to a source privy to the arrest of the suspects, the officers of SARS were tipped off about the sudden wealth of the prime suspect who is from the North but investing in the North-Central state, and was placed under watch.

The surveillance reportedly paid off when an informant got to know about another movement of foreign currency from the North-West state to the North-Central state by the suspects, and informed the federal officers, who stormed the prime suspect’s home and arrested them.

The suspects reportedly confessed to the source of the money, with the officers said to have visited the place and made more shocking discoveries.

Moves to establish how the suspects came in contact with the foreign currencies reportedly led to the invitation of one of the children of the late Head of State who reportedly disowned the loot on behalf of the family.

An influential woman working in the presidency is allegedly putting pressure on the officers in charge of the case to free the suspects and stay off the matter, with some top police officers, who are allegedly benefiting from the largesse being distributed by the suspects, also said to be pushing for the matter to be transferred to a particular Commissioner of Police, who claimed that he had been petitioned over the matter long before the arrest by the federal officers.

The controversy generated in the Police over who should investigate the case saw all parties in contention meeting with the DIG overseeing the matter last Wednesday at the Force Headquarters in Abuja.